Mendel Extruder heater issues

Hi all,
I have been working on this issue for quite some time. Im using Repsnapper in conjunction with reprap boards ed2.3. I have setup all my axes and they all work when manually moved. The extruder motor runs when told to manually. The issue comes when I manually try to turn on the heater. Repsnapper sends M104 S220. Nothing happens. No lights turn on and nichrome is cold. Now your instant thought is bad mosfet, Right?

Well if I load a model and print the code, my mendel immediately begins printing the model and the heater light comes on sporadicly for very short periods of time then goes back off. If anyone has a clue of whats going on please help as this is my senior project for college and has been 8 months going and needs to be done in may.

i'd suggest trying another way to send gcode, such as the reprap host. I doubt that this is a software issue, though.

I'm not an electronics expert. I bet you'll get a better response if you post in the electronics forum. but you might as well try reprap host or send.py first, just to make sure.